Strangely enough, when I came home from Kara's the next day, my uncle was at my house waiting for me. He was in the middle of talking to my mother, but he didn't give me his usual costmary smile.

"Stop smirking," my mother ordered me. "It makes you look evil."

"Maybe he is," my uncle offered. "It would explain a lot."

"What did he do now?"

Not that Seth answered her. I couldn't blame him; it made Mom upset when we talked about Nessie and my mom could get lethal when she was upset. Instead, my uncle said, "It's not that easy to just kill someone, Levi."

"Vampires. Not people."

"Still not as easy as you seem to think."

"Or safe," Mom added. "Jared was a damn good fighter. All it takes is one bad day."

"And you're responsible for the lives of everyone in your pack. As much as you might want it to be a game, it's not. Not even close."

"No pressure or anything," I muttered.

"Just something to keep in mind before you go trying to pick a fight," Uncle Seth said as he stood up. He told my mom he was going to eat with Grandma, then took off. My mother still looked far too worried for my liking.

Fortunately, it wasn't about me, I don't think. She said, "It was always harder on him because he doesn't just hate the vamps."

"He really into vampires that much?"

Finally, Mom knocked it off.

"Oh yeah. It's embarrassing. His 'Ode to Edward' was over three hundred pages long."

"And Grandma still likes him better?"

"I will beat you."

But Mom was laughing and even if she repeated what my uncle had said—don't go picking a fight until I was sure I could win—she hugged me. And fed me. A guy couldn't ask for more.

After dinner, Judy followed my dad out into the garage. At first, I figured she just wanted to hang out with the old man. She was probably feeling sorry for him. He had been pouting about her ignoring him lately. It was kind of pathetic.

Then I heard the banging.

I guess Judy was working out her anger productively, then.

"Everyone's acting so stupid," she complained bursts of noise. "They won't even let me patrol with Bert anymore. They think I'll just lose control and throw myself at him. I mean, it's not that he wants to patrol with me, but—"

"Now that's not true. He's your friend."

"Says who?"

"I can read his mind."

"Stop reading my friends' minds."

"See? He's your friend."

"I guess." Sounding far too bitter to be Judy, a voice said, "I'm everyone's friend. Of course he likes Dinah better."

"Judy—"

"She's just…Dinah. And prettier."

"I'll have you know you take after me and I'm the best looking guy on the planet." My sister snorted quietly, then giggled, then let my dad distract her with some car talk for a minute. Eventually, when their latest crisis was solved, Judy said, "I wish I was more like Mom."

Dad just laughed. "You're so much like your mother."

Judy and I snorted in unison.

Dad faked being offended. "You think I can't tell who is like my wife?"

"I didn't say that. I just…I'm not like her at all."

"Sure you are," Dad said easily. "You might not look like her as much as your sister, but you do have her eyes, you know. And her ears. Very cute ears—just don't tell her I said that."

Judy giggled and promised she wouldn't tell.

"I know you didn't get the glare-gene, for which I am eternally grateful, but those aren't the best parts of your Mom. You got all the other good stuff, the caring and the generosity and whatever the heck it is that allows her to feel for psycho vamps in heels. You're the gooey inside she doesn't let a lot of people see. And if Bert didn't see how great that gooey inside is…well, it's his loss. Because you're extraordinary, baby girl. If I do say so myself."

"You have to say that," my sister sniffed. "You're my dad."

"And damn proud to be."

He let her cry herself out, arms around her and didn't even complain when she used his t-shirt as a tissue. The old man was all right.

When Judy got hungry and skipped off to the kitchen, I brought my old man a beer. He just laughed and took mine right out of my hand.

"I'm eighteen now." That was practically twenty-one.

"And I'm your father."

Who looked like my slightly older brother, but I didn't point that out. There were other ways to get back at him.

"You might want to try to pretend Judy isn't so obviously your favorite."

"Levi—"

Not that I held it against him.

"She's my favorite, too."

"Hey," Dad said, "I don't—she just always needed me more. That's all."

Despite the occasional outburst, being a werewolf had probably mellowed me out a bit. Knowing my parents could be trusted after all had a therapeutic effect. But before then…before, when I had been so goddamn angry all the time, so lost and…I had needed him then.

Still, Dad wasn't wrong when he said, "You didn't give us much choice about helping you."

"I thought you were a dictator who didn't give people choices?"

"I pretend to be because it makes the others feel better. They like thinking their alpha's all-powerful. You're not though. And it's okay as long as you remember that."

"You still like Judy better."

"Maybe," he said as he handed me back my beer. "But I never kicked you out of the house and I was pretty tempted there for a while."

Judy came skipping back (I think the kid shot me a dirty look; I just about had a heart attack). "Can you kick Levi out of the house now?"

"You're cute."

"You're ugly." The monster even stuck out her tongue at me.

"Don't make me send you to your rooms," the old man begged. Judy pointedly ignored me and took back the wrench and got back to whacking the hell out of the car.

"What is that noise?" my mother asked as she joined us. She took the beer out of my hand as she walked by and hauled herself onto my dad's workbench, the two of them watching Judy and trying not to wince. I was too pissed at my mother stealing my beer to care about my little sister's tantrum, but I stayed.

Mom started asking when we were going to get rid of my dad's Rabbit (after I crashed the one he'd had since he was sixteen back when I was sixteen, he'd gotten a replacement baby that was kind of falling apart all over our house) so I had to watch. The look of horror on my father and sister's faces was too good to pass up.

Judy and I headed to bed eventually and left our parents in the garage. Either they were getting sloppy or my ears were getting too good because I could hear every word. Or maybe it was because I stopped to sit at the kitchen table so I could eavesdrop like the good son I was.

"It's not like her to sulk." Mom was worried.

"People are allowed to change, Leah. Let her feel bad for a little while."

"I want our baby back," she pouted.

"And I wish our baby never liked boys…and that boys would stop liking my daughters. We have got to do more to keep those kids out of my head."

"My poor baby." I heard my mother get up and settle herself on a very padded chair. "What can we do, though?"

"You know what we could do."

My father's unusually serious tone made me sit up straighter, trying to make sure I didn't miss what was said next. I don't think I did, though it was a long time before I heard my mother speak. Her words came out slowly. She was buying herself time to think.

"If we stop phasing, we won't get to sit like this anymore."

"Says who?"

"Collin's very large belly."

My father laughed like it wasn't true. After the old timers stopped phasing they didn't lose the height or the muscle—at least, not right away. The metabolism went right away though the appetite didn't (or the memory of what they used to be able to eat didn't disappear). That meant that those who stopped phasing tended to get fat. Fast. Sam was already putting on weight; Embry was still in decent shape but that was because his wife was a health nut and because he knew Quil and my Dad wouldn't be nice about him getting flabby. The most frightening thing in life was a disappointed best friend.

"You wouldn't love me if I wasn't a stud?"

"Pretty much."

"Please. You'd just miss me being able to order you around."

"Ha! I've always had all the power."

"It was the legs."

My ears.

The sounds they were making were not helping.

"You used to want to stop," Dad said eventually.

"I haven't for a long while. Some idiot made me think being a girlie-wolf was okay. But…it might be time. Even if…he's still young. Really young, Jake."

"Most of them are older than I was."

"Too old, maybe?"

"The stuff left for him to learn is the stuff I can't teach."

"He's never been a fast learner."

Hey!

"If you don't want to, it's fine, Leah. I was just thinking out loud."

"Twenty years of marriage and you better not start thinking now, Jacob Black. I don't know what I'd do with you then."

He laughed and shrugged it off.

"It was just an idea."

"The rest would have to follow us." The rest—it was a dwindling list. Quil had stopped just after my birthday. It was just my parents and my uncles, now. Uncle Paul was going to try again (he'd tried every two years or so for a long time, now) in November. If it worked this time…I think my parents figured all that out too. "Do you think Seth would agree to stop?"

"We could leave Seth in charge," Dad said.

Except I could beat my uncle in a fight; I was almost sure of it. In scrimmages, we were pretty close to equal. And I was bigger.

"I don't think he sees himself as the La Push alpha," she said slowly.

"Why not?" Dad asked lightly.

"Not even Seth is nuts enough to babysit those kids when he doesn't have to."

They didn't have to sound so amused; they weren't funny. But the laughter seemed to give my mother permission to be serious.

"If you want to," she said, "We stop. What you do, I do. You know that, right? Alpha and Beta until the end."

"Until the end," he echoed. "We'll think about it."

"Okay." Then: "I love you."

"I know."

"Shut up."

Then I took off because I knew exactly where that was going.

Having to create a pack schedule that kept me away from the boys and Judy away from everyone and Baxter away from his brother and Brain away from Bert and Will with Bert ended up giving me a headache. But it's not like I forgot I had to deal with Judy and her problematic growing pains. I just needed to pick my moment. And since that didn't seem to be coming, one day when she was sitting around on the couch, watching some crappy sitcom, I sat myself down beside her.

"So how's my favorite female werewolf?"

"Busy."

"Doing what?"

"So now you're interested?"

"What?"

"Go away, Levi."

That wasn't like Judy at all. There was usually never any venom in her voice.

"Oh, come on. Don't be like that."

"You're being an asshat."

"See, I don't do hats. I like a little breeze in my hair." Not even a smile. "Seriously. Jubes. Tell me what's wrong and I'll fix it."

"You're what's wrong."

"Okay, now you're just being mean." Still nothing. "Do you want me to beat myself up? Because I can do that."

It was tiny, but the smile was there. "How?"

Easy enough. I just made a fist and kept knocking it into my face. "Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself, stop…"

I got her eventually. She burst into laughter and let me stop punching myself in the face. Not that I had been going hard, but my jaw ended up a little sore because I thought she'd be a lot faster about stopping me.

"You don't need to beat yourself up," she relented. "I just…being a werewolf is so cool but…it's just…they all think I'm pathetic."

"No, they don't." She didn't believe me, so I pulled out my most convincing argument. "If they did, I'd beat them to death. And then Will would hide the bodies. So since all the pack is still around, they definitely don't think you're pathetic."

"They think I'm a silly girl with a crush she can't stop who can't take a hint and can't fight as well as they can."

"Jubes…" Well, what was I supposed to say to that? "We can practice fighting, but…you just won't ever be as good as the guys. I'm sorry."

"You suck at helping."

Now she was back to glaring. Dad was right—she had missed out on Mom's glaring gene. Judy was not even close to terrifying. But she did look so cute I felt terrible that I couldn't do better.

"Well…what will? I can hit myself again."

She took my offer seriously, thinking everything over. Slowly, an idea came to her. A brilliant idea that was kind of sort of evil—it was right up my alley.

"Bert needs a tutor."

"And I care because...?" I let the silence tell Dinah exactly what I wanted. "You have got to be kidding me. I'm not doing it."

"In his time of trouble, you're going to abandon this boy just because he has a tiny crush on you? That's kind of heartless of you, Di."

"Get Will to do it."

"Bert needs an English tutor."

Dinah groaned, knowing where this was going. It wasn't like Will couldn't write (I thought) but it made him cranky and it was just best for everyone if we avoided that.

"Get Brian to do it."

"See, I would. But the two of them are sort of having a little pissing contest."

She groaned again and I think I heard her throw something. It was hard to tell over the phone, but I hoped nothing broke. We couldn't afford it. "I do not need to hear this."

"Brian thinks Bert is way too young and immature and generally just not good enough for you. And Bert thinks Brian is an idiot for not getting back with you immediately when he had the chance." And for continuing to think about Ginger even now, but I didn't have to tell my sister that. "Then they start seeing who has the biggest dick—"

"Levi!"

"You want me to tell you who's bigger?"

"I will kill you."

Will came in just then, here to pick Judy up for patrol; I had put my sister on speakerphone for a reason. She heard Will as he said, "I take it from the death threats you asked her."

"Francy could do it."

"She's already working three jobs," I reminded my sister. And tutoring Baxter regularly and helping Bert and Judy when she could. Plus her classes. She was busy enough without taking on Bert more often.

"There's got to be another way," Dinah said.

"Suck it up, Mrs. Robinson." Will laughed. "You're his only hope."

Dinah and Will needed to communicate by phone more often. With them in different cities, Dinah was reduced to snarling and flipping off someone who couldn't see her (I think I knew my sister well enough to guess what she was doing).

"You're whose only hope?" Judy asked as she came out of her room.

"Does Bert really need a tutor?" Dinah demanded.

"Oh. Yeah," my kid sister lied. "He needs all the help he can get, Di. Why wouldn't you do it?"

Dinah hesitated, but I knew we had her. The kid was going to so happy he could finally have a conversation with the love of his life, even if it was only over the internet.

"Fine. I'll do it—on one condition."

"What?"

"If he shows up on my computer screen not wearing a shirt, the deal is off."

Will cracked up, but I tried to be the mature one. Sort of. "You're scared of his chest?"

"That's the condition," Di insisted. "Take it or leave it."

We took it.

"Feel better now?" I asked my kid sister.

She just shrugged. "He'll be happy."

Then she took off for patrol without a backwards glance.

"Brian won't be." Will quickly added, "Not that I care."

"They're just talking. He'll understand." We had done our best to make sure he could see his imprint, after all. It was only fair.

Will sighed. "I can't believe I'm standing here wishing I was as badass as your kid sister."

"Drugs fry your brain."

He laughed, flipped me off and hurried to catch her. I had to talk to Brian. He'd get it. Besides, if it stopped Judy from being upset, it was worth it.